FiF is OC-centric and will diverge greatly from canon.

"Here's the sad truth: quirk marriages are a thing."

Not sure when I heard that, but damned if it wasn't true. You see, back before things got really weird, the world kinda sucked. It was boring and uninteresting, but then a glowing baby was born in some place in China...

...Ping King, I think?

Anyways, glowing baby is the first sign shit is going to get weird. Then more strange kids with powers pop up and as the years pass, the world goes from boring to holy-shit-we-live-in-a-comic-book awesome. Supposedly, there was this era of supervillainy reigning supreme, especially all the Middle East and East Asia, but after people got their shit together and actual superheroes started punching people in the face, peace became possible.

Mostly thanks to All Might, or so my teachers like to say.

Then again, All Might is the Number One Hero, capital and underline words mandatory, of all Japan. All Might equals Peace and Peace means All Might is here. When you live in this country, you have to accept three irrevocable truths:

1. All Might is the Number One Hero and the reason why we have such a great country.
2. If you have a quirk, you're normal. If you don't, you're pretty much a second class citizen.
3. Being a hero is the only valid career if you want to legally use your quirk.

The other two don't even have anything to do with the others, but they're always mentioned together. Its so stupid, teach! Why the he-Where was I again?

Oh yeah, quirk marriages.

So, quirks are definitely a genetic thing. Nowadays, most of us get born with a weird power, like...twenty or so percent don't and maybe one in three hundred of that twenty percent are only technically-useless because their power is so subtle it might as well not exist. My dad was in that last bit. His Quirk: Solar Powered let him run off sunlight completely, not needing to eat, sleep or drink anything for energy. Given that moonlight is basically reflected sunlight, he never noticed any difference. So dad was pretty much quirkless as far as society was concerned.

It's not something people outright say, but being quirkless, literally or technically, pretty much made you a pariah, socially. You're treated even worse than someone with a disability and you're considered the weakest, therefore immediately expendable, asset. You're the first blamed and the first to be let go if things are going badly.

My dad, Haruhito Toyama, hadn't been able to keep a steady job for more than a few months, at least until he met my mom, Hajime Sato.

See, mom was a pro hero, not one of the big name ones like Endeavor or locally famous like Ingenium. Mom's Quirk: Empty Illusions let her create any object she could clearly visualize instantaneously. Sounds awesome, right? Sadly, these objects were powered by her body heat, which was never enough to properly form the object entirely; only the image of it. Needless to say, it was a nice looking, but ultimately useless ability for a hero.

Huh? Oh, her hero name was Prop Phantasm; her hero career only lasted three years before she retired. Well, retired is the wrong word. She was told to 'quit ruining her marriage potential, find a rich man to knock her up and make sure they have a kid whose quirk was better than hers was', by her asshole father, my grandfather Ashitaka Sato.

Since mom never made it big and didn't have any other skills, she did as gramps said. Went on a bunch of marriage dates that always had some other girl with a better quirk than hers. Gramps got desperate and found my dad. The idea was that since dad's quirk gave him energy and mom never had the internal energy necessary to form objects properly, together their quirks would be awesome.

Well, he was right.

After three miscarriages and a stillbirth, I, Harui Toyama, was born fifteen years ago. My Quirk manifested when I was three; Sunforge, a hybrid of both my parents' quirks. I don't get tired much and I can form objects properly using solar energy. I got a few other things, like being able to augment my physical capabilities, generate a lot of body heat and pull off even more bullshit with the near-endless energy provided by my father's half of my quirk. Yep, I came out with a quirk clearly stronger and more versatile than either of my parents. My dad is still discriminated for his apparent uselessness, though its more subtle nowadays since he managed to father such a gifted daughter and mom plans to live out her heroic aspirations vicariously through me.

Moral of the story? Uh, quirk marriages are a thing and they sometimes work out like your asshole grandfathers think they'll work out.

"Well, at least I got some honest feedback this time?"

I stare sheepishly at the bright red 100% on our teacher's grading rubric for my presentation. The report I gave about quirk marriages hadn't had any cited sources, barely numbered a thousand words (two thousand had been required), used informal wording and had a spelling error every other sentence. It was blatant and incredibly stupid favoritism; our teacher didn't even bother to hide it.

"We both know that you only passed because the administration silently demands all teachers pass the students with the best quirks. The rest of use have to deal with being graded fairly." The mop of messy purple hair to my left mutters. Lifting his head up to glare at me, Shinso puts his own scored rubric (79%) into his satchel. The distaste in his voice is clear and I don't blame him. The whole student body of Nabu Middle School knew my grades (and like seven other kids with strong quirks) were being padded by all our teachers. The prestige of graduating as many students with strong quirks to famous high schools and universities was a big deal for the administration. Famous alumni meant more funding and greater prestige, after all.

"Yeah, but at least we can make up for it next year when we both go to U.A. No more blatant favoritism and discrimination. We'd actually be graded according to our own merits. Which, to be honest, is all thanks to you tutoring me." I say, dragging him out of his seat. Falling into step beside each other, the two of us make our way through the school, classes finally over. If this was an anime, I'd be the fairly popular girl with Shinso being the one unpopular guy that I'm friends with to show just how nice and nonjudgmental I am.

If this was an anime.

Truth is, I'm friends with Shinso mainly because we've been neighbors for years, both love cats and damn if the guy doesn't have this...thing that makes him so easy to talk to. Shinso is pretty much the pariah of the school thanks to his Quirk: Brainwashing. He can mentally take control of anyone that answers him, irregardless if they meant to or not. It requires him to actively seek to take control, but that doesn't mean anything to the rest of the school. As far as they're concerned, its a villain quirk and its only a matter of time until Shinso proves them right.

I know its stupid and I've said it a dozen times. Shinso is really too nice of a guy to do it maliciously. Though, he'd do it in a heartbeat for a joke or if it was an emergency; once, he made me do stupid poses like a magical girl and took like a dozen photos he keeps as blackmail. But Shinso would never use selfishly; he's got this complex about his power. Didn't even get to name it himself like everyone else does for their quirks. Personally, I think he should call it 'Simon Says', like that American children's game, but Shinso is adamant about taking the name it was given by that asshole quirk doctor and proving everyone wrong.

Shinso is stubborn like that.

"What's the plan for the entrance exam next week? Do you think we'll end up in the same bracket?" I ask, hoping we do. I'll probably scrape by with an acceptable from the written and Shinso will ace it, there's no doubt. It's the infamous practical portion U.A. has. There's a cycle of tests, according to Tumblr, all geared towards physical and flashy quirks. U.A. juggles between robots, third year students and young pro heroes, so if its robots, Shinso is screwed.

He just shrugs and I can't help but worry. Shinso wants...needs to be a hero, to prove everyone wrong. And I, being the gracious and wonderful friend that I am, want to help him achieve that dream.

Totally just being an amazing friend.

Just a friend.

Friendship is Fine!